My musing as a Mom, Business Leader, Techie and Whatever Else

SharePoint 2007

If you are using windows 7 and moss 2007 you may find things get REALLY SLOW while moving files in document libraries. This rather obscure fix worked for me, maybe it will help you as well.

I spent some time today doing some work on a site whereby I needed to add a large amount of images to the style library of a SharePoint Site Collection. To speed up the process of course I would select the Open with Windows Explorer option so I could just paste the required files in with ease.

Instantly I would notice a significant freeze and then subsequently extremely low speeds when uploading. Since this was my first time experiencing this, I immediately tried a different server to see if the problem had to do with network settings on the server. I experienced the same thing on multiple servers.

We then tried to replicate on other desktops and it turned out everything was fine on Vista running IE7 or IE8 connecting to the same document libraries. Finally in the end, a little searching lead me to the forums where a user had pointed out that this issue can be resolved by going into your IE Settings and turning off Automatically Detect Settings.

So if you run into extremely slow speeds uploading to a SharePoint Document Library via Windows Explorer (Webdav), do the following from IE.

Join us on Tuesday, August 18th at 8pm EST as we welcome a developer panel featuring Ed Musters, Geoff Varosky, Paul Schaeflein, Paul Stork and Rebecca Isserman. These guys will be there to answer your questions as well as provide some of their own guidance on topics such as getting started with web part development and the proper implementation of user controls. This event will be hosted by Laura Rogers.

As with all previous meetings, come join us no matter where you are in the world as this meeting will be delivered virtually via Live Meeting. In order to hear audio for the event, you will need to download the Live Meeting client.

Join us Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 8PM EST for our next virtual user group meeting for SharePoint Nation!

Shane Young (www.sharepoint911.com) will join us for a very special presentation as we resume regularly scheduled monthly meetings.

Session Overview:

In this session Shane will walk you through common mistakes made during the installation process of SharePoint and give you some tips on keeping your server running in tip-top shape. No death by PowerPoint but more of a hands on review of the server and Central Admin. He may also sneak in some nuggets to help you plan for the future….

PLEASE NOTE: This is a virtual event that is available live online so anyone can attend. It’s just like any other user group meeting but you can connect from anywhere and well…there is no free pizza at the end.

I will be presenting at a Free SharePoint event in Ottawa on April 30th at the Microsoft Office on 100 Queen Street. The event is just one of several we will be doing as part of an upcoming tour. Details on future dates / events to follow.

My presentation will center around SharePoint tips and tricks for usage on an Intranet. As with most of my presentations, the goal isn’t just to show you WHAT SharePoint can do but how you should use certain features to gain better benefits for business. I will be covering topics such as branding, electronic forms, workflow and reporting along with my usual advice around establishing governance and solid document management procedures.

Plus in addition to seeing my presentation, you can also check out another presentation by Mike Maadarani on Web Content Management and how SharePoint can be used to run your Internet site.

Join us April 30, 2009 for a day of SharePoint information sharing and discovery. Presentations by multi-published author and SharePoint MVP Amanda Murphy (Intranet) and WCM expert Mike Maadarani (WCM). The event is completely free and taking place at 100 Queen Street, Ottawa Ontario (The Microsoft Office).

Well the SharePoint Best Practices Conference in San Diego has come and gone. I had the immense pleasure of attending and presenting twice to a very receptive and interactive audience. I was blessed that both of my sessions were full and standing room only which makes for a much more exciting experience as a presenter. Noone likes to travel 3000 miles to speak to an empty and disinterested room.

I had a fantastic time while there as it was great to meet up with old friends and make some new connections. Plus the weather was an absolute treat since San Diego has a much nicer climate than Newfoundland this time of year (or any time of year for that matter).

I was very grateful to the conference organizers for flying me out there and having me participate in such a great event. The quality of the conference was top notch and I got the impression from speaking to attendees that they were very happy with the entire event.

As promised, linked below are my slidedecks from both sessions. I hope those that attended will find these useful. For those that did not, you may not get the whole story from the slidedecks as there was a great deal of explanation and discussion around each slide and the demos but feel free to drop me a question on anything via the comments feature of this blog.

Join us Tonight (Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 8PM EST) for another virtual user group meeting for SharePoint Nation!
In this meeting, John Holliday (MOSS MVP) will speak to us on Records Management with respect to Document Retention. John is an excellent speaker and very knowledgeable expert on SharePoint, so be sure not to miss this event.

Session Information:
Document retention is an important part of content management. SharePoint provides out-of-the-box support for managing document retention using the built-in expiration policy feature of the information management policy framework. The built-in expiration policy feature includes the ability to define expiration formulas based on document metadata, but there are many scenarios in which the expiration date depends on conditions external to a given document. In this session, we’ll explore the information management policy architecture in detail and learn how to extend the expiration policy feature by writing custom document expiration formulas that calculate the expiration date based on data pulled from elsewhere in the SharePoint farm.

A little background on SharePoint Nation!
User groups are a great way for getting out to meet peers, share information on past experiences related to a particular topic and to learn from subject matter experts on new concepts or best practices. Many of us already are members of local user groups related to SharePoint, .NET and other topics. However in some cases, it may be difficult to get out to meetings due to work commitments or even worse, impossible to coordinate a group due to regional limitations. Enter SharePoint Nation…a virtual user group.
SharePoint Nation will operate as any other user group…except without the free Pizza.
We will meet, share information and network with one another. Meetings will feature presentations from a variety of subject matter experts on a vast array of topics. To accommodate people from all over the globe, a variety of time slots will be followed for meetings and all content will be made available online for on demand participation. The website will be used for sharing information with one another between meetings.

How can you get involved…
Aside from presenting at meetings, we are looking for people to help host the meetings. As a host you will take on responsibility for notifying attendees of meeting locations, introducing the speaker for the evening and collecting evaluations at the conclusion of the meeting. Training will be provided on using Live Meeting and the various other tools associated with hosting and presenting at meetings.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I am a huge Johnny Cash fan. I’m also a big fan of guitar in general so I’m pretty excited about my most recent addition to my guitar collection.

I’ve been toiling over what high-end guitar to buy for the past few months, I had eyed the Johnny Cash Signature Martin D 35 a few months ago but dismissed it due to hefty price tag.

Fast forward a few months and as luck would have it, I am now (at least once it’s delivered) the proud new owner of one.

To give a little history of the guitar, Johnny Cash of course was the rebel of his day – also known as “The Man in Black”. Of course with such a title comes an image to uphold and what better accessory than his guitar of choice, the Martin D 35. (Which he played and toured with for 20 years).

Back in those days Martin was not interested in building a black guitar as it was considered too radical. Johnny Cash however was idolized all over the world, and one such place was Nazareth PA (USA) where this guitar was built.

The guys on the floor loved Johnny so much that they would build his custom black guitar secretly in the shop while the boss was away – they would hide it when he was on the floor. Finally the guitar was finished and delivered – Johnny was pleased.

Fast forward a few weeks and the then boss (I believe) CF Martin (II) was sitting home watching Columbo on TV when he noticed Johnny Cash playing this Black Polished Martin. The story goes he was so delighted to see the guitar on television that all was forgiven.

I just received word that I have been awarded the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for SharePoint for the 2009 award cycle, that makes it 3 years running. Thanks to all the folks within the community, the other MVP’s, the SharePoint product team members, and other Microsoft employees whom collectively weigh in on all of this. Special thanks to Sasha for his tireless efforts as well. Looking forward to another year of exciting projects as we ramp up for the o14 wave.

Congrats to Amanda Murphy and all the other MVP’s that were recently renewed as well.

Join us Tonight (Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 8PM EST) for our first virtual user group meeting for SharePoint Nation! In this meeting, Robert Bogue (MOSS MVP) will speak to us on Governance. Robert is a definite expert in this area and will make this an event you will not want to miss!

Session Information:

Are you having trouble getting folks interested in SharePoint? Is SharePoint out of control in your organization? Have you experienced SharePoint sprawl? In this session you’ll get a framework for governance on SharePoint. You’ll learn how to balance evangelism with economics. You’ll discover how guidance may be more effective at governance for creating a healthy ecosystem.

User groups are a great way for getting out to meet peers, sharing information on past experiences related to a particular topic and for learning from subject matter experts on new concepts or best practices. Many of us already are members of local user groups related to SharePoint, .NET and other topics. However in some cases, it may be difficult to get out to meetings due to work commitments or even worse, impossible to coordinate a group due to regional limitations. Enter SharePoint Nation…a virtual user group.

SharePoint Nation will operate as any other user group…except without the free Pizza.

We will meet, share information and network with one another. Meetings will feature presentations from a variety of subject matter experts on a vast array of topics. To accommodate people from all over the globe, a variety of time slots will be followed for meetings and all content will be made available online for on demand participation. The website will be used for sharing information with one another between meetings.

How can you get involved…

Aside from presenting at meetings, we are looking for people to help host the meetings. As a host you will take on responsibility for notifying attendees of meeting locations, introducing the speaker for the evening and collecting evaluations at the conclusion of the meeting. Training will be provided on using Live Meeting and the various other tools associated with hosting and presenting at meetings.